Those 70ish Girls

It finally quit raining as Arf and Rex made their way to the little town below the mountain. Rex soon began to settle down. He knew Arf and trusted him which was a good thing because they couldn’t lose precious time. Grandpa John had not regained consciousness and had a high fever. Mark was trying his best to keep him from getting any worse until help arrived.

Arf and Rex were getting close to the bottom of the mountain where Mark had parked his truck and horse trailer when Arf saw a car at the crossroad. He hoped it was going up the mountain, but it continued on in the other direction. It was too much to hope for, anyway. No car would drive up that rough dirt road when it was nice, let alone after a torrential rainstorm. It looked to Arf like they would have to go all the way to town before they could find help. He hurried Rex along as fast as he could without leading him onto the busier road that would take them to town. He couldn’t hold the reins in his mouth and the frisbee, too, which had him worried.

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Mark removed the bandages on Clark’s Grandpa John’s head to see if it showed signs of infection. The old man had gone in and out of consciousness for the last hour, but his fever hadn’t broken which was a real concern.

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As he worked cleaning the gash on his patient’s forehead, Mark talked to him. He was desperate to help him live. He knew how much it would mean to Clark to be able to see the grandpa he thought had died six years before. The old man’s dog, Biff never left his human friend’s side. The poor dog seemed to know that Mark was trying to help. Annie found a window where she could see the front of the cabin and waited for Arf and Rex to come back with help. It began to rain again.

Arf and Rex were about a half mile from town when he saw a truck coming their way. Could he get the driver to stop? What if Rex got spooked and ran off? He decided to drop the frisbee and grab Rex’s reins. He hurried to the side of the road and hoped the truck would see them. His angel was watching over them and the truck slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road right in front of them.

“What in the world are you two doing walking alongside a busy road like this?” The man asked as he got out of the truck and slowly walked over to the unlikely pair. “Hang onto those reins, boy and I’ll see if I can help you out with that horse without spooking him.”

Rex must have sensed the man would help him get back to Mark because he stood there without moving while Arf let the man take the reins.

“Where is your owner?” The kind man knelt down to pet Arf and the little dog was so grateful he almost forgot about the frisbee lying a few feet away from them.

Arf: I finally remembered the frisbee that Mark had written something on and made a little whining noise to try to tell the man I wasn’t afraid of him, but I had to give him that frisbee. The man just watched me find it in the grass and walk over to give it to him.

“We can’t play with your frisbee now,” the man said. He knelt to pat Arf on the head, again. “I have no idea what I’m going to do with you two.” The frisbee was lying close to where the man was kneeling and he glanced over and saw the message Mark had written.

“You are one smart dog” the man said. “Your owner is lucky to have you. I know a man who lives within walking distance. The three of us will walk to his place and pray that he’s home. We’ll leave this beautiful horse with him while you and I come back to my truck and go get Doc Murphy. We’ll get him up to that cabin as soon as possible.”